Professional development programme

Best practice education - webinars, workshops

For members to attend conferences, workshops and webinar it will generally require payment of a discounted fee.  Non-members are welcome to register and attend all events on payment of a full fee to cover set up and admin costs.  Events are usually promoted to members through the BioFlash newsletter and by e-mail flyer to those practitioners listed on the Bioenergy Association Database.

Webinar details including a profile of the guest presenter and the session topic will be available in the BioFlash and by email flyers 3 weeks prior to the session (including all details on how to make a booking and participate in the event).

Presentations from previous webinars and workshops are available from the Bioenergy Knowledge Centre

  • If you would like to suggest topics for an event please admin [at] bioenergy.org.nz (contact us)
  • Details of current events can be found on the events page.

Training - short courses

Bioenergy Association runs a suite of wood energy short courses. These are for wood fuel suppliers, wood energy advisers and wood fuelled heat plant facility owners. The courses are suitable for harvest crew through to facility managers.

The current suite of wood energy courses are:

  • WE1  Wood fuel supply 
  • WE2  Contracting for the sale and purchase of wood fuel 
  • WE3  Specification of wood fuelled heat plant 
  • WE4  Evaluating biomass energy systems 
  • WE6  Safe operation of small scale heat plant 
  • WE7  Writing a business case for wood fuelled heat plant 

Courses not developed but in the original training framework or more recently suggested are:

  • WE4  Optimisation of the use of wood fuel in existing coal fired heating plant 
  • WE5  Purchasing and operating a wood fuelled heat plant 

You can read a detailed description on each of these courses in Information Sheet 41: Wood Energy Short Courses.

Professional development

Events are activities to assist members keep up-to-date with technology, markets and other participants in the sector.  They are also to assist members identify and deliver best practice. Events also qualify for Continuing Professional Development hours required for recognition as a Registered Wood Energy or Waste-to-energy Adviser.

Attending the events demonstrates a commitment by Members.  It says that they are taking time to ensure their technical knowledge is up-to-speed and that they are taking an opportunity to learn from the experiences from their peers.

Recognition as a Registered Wood Energy or Waste-to-energy Advisor can be used in marketing to demonstrate competence and experience.